Award & Honours

In Association with IIT Delhi, Third Dialogue India Conclave became hub of new ideas in higher education

In Association with IIT Delhi, Dialogue India Magazine organized the third Dialogue India Conclave on June 24, 2017, in collaboration with IIT Delhi at IIT Delhi. AICTE was also a partner in this event. An exhibition was also organized to promote technological innovation in higher education in the program, in which many educational institutions from across the country displayed their technological innovation. These institutions have displayed their original and new technically ideas as models. The institutes participating in this exhibition were IIT Delhi, Riviera Mobile, Era Lucknow Medical College and Hospital, Lucknow, SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, Krishna Engineering College, RC Patel Institute of Technology, KCG College of Technology, Dronacharya College of Engineering, GLA University Mathura, Mehr Chand Polytechnic, Eastindin. Representatives from all these institutions displayed their technical efficiency and innovation. Awards were given to the institutions performing best in the exhibition. Two third prizes were given to KCG College of Technology and SCMC School of Engineering, and a second prize to the Era Lucknow Medical College. The exhibition of their various projects was also organized by the students of IIT Delhi in this program. About twenty students displayed their projects.

Whole day the scholars and academicians from all over India expressed their views on various topics. In the inaugural session of the program, MP Ramesh Vidhudi, was the chief guest. He emphasized value-based education by telling the distance between education and degree. He emphasized on self-disciplinary approach. At the same time, he told the various steps taken by the Modi government in the field of education. In the first session, Archana Dutta, former Director General, Doordarshan, Dr. Kamal Tawari, Former Secretary, Government of India, Prof. SK Atrey, IIT Delhi, Prof. V.K. Goswami, EX- VC Sunrise University, Sangam University, VP Asian Academy of Film and Television, Shri Pawan Sinha, Spiritual Guru, Need for improvement in higher education in India i.e., The Need of Wake up India for Reform and Transformation in Higher Education, Wake Up India: Innovate, Manufacturing, Globalization, presented their views on the subject and needed improvement in education Emphasized Along with changes in the present form of education, emphasis has been laid on improving primary education from primary level.

Prior to this, Dialogue India magazine’s group editor, Anuj Agarwal, told the need for this conclave that he was very disturbed to see this form of education in the private sector, and the scams in the name of education used to churn his mind, he also felt the lack of communication. Communication between government institutions and private institutions disturbed him, and this is why he came with this form of conclave. And this year he got the support of IIT and AICTE, and this form of conclave emerged. There are three different aspects, the first is the discussion on the burning issues in the field of education, the second is the new projects by the students and the third presentation on the technical and innovation paper presentation.

The second session was on the role of private institution promoter / owners in quality foreign education and innovation, in which commander VK Jaitley, eminent journalist Mr. Ved Pratap Vaidik, Maj Gen Dilawar Singh, Professor Navin Rampal, and Prof. IIT Roorkee. Sonal Atrey and Mrs. Sheila Tawari were the speakers. The role of private education providers in this session was discussed in detail. And many important ideas came to the solution of the challenges faced by them. According to Shri Vaidik ji, there is a time for change in education and the time for revolution for education has come. It is time to start a movement in the field of education.

In the third session, discussions regarding the need to change Indian value system, its relevance and higher education, and emphasis on the need to restore Indian values to education were done. In this session, Commander VK Jaitley, Prof. S. K. Atrey, Dr. Sudhir Singh, Dr. Valmiki Prasad, Dr. NK Jain, and Prof. Seema Sharma discussed Indian values on higher education. And there was a consensus on whether education can not improve in India without the restoration of Indian values.

In the last session, Union Minister of State for Women & Child Development, Smt. Krishna Raj was the Chief Guest. She also emphasized the re-establishment of Indian values. Congratulating Mr. Anuj Agrawal, the group editor of Dialogue India, she also congratulated the magazine on the ranking of private institutions. Mrs. Krishna Raj said that such programs should continue even further.

All guests in the program were welcomed by the group editor of the magazine, Anuj Agarwal and Managing Editor Dr Sarika Agarwal.

A part of the conclave was also a paper presentation on technology and innovation. More than 30 papers were presented from various institutes from all over the country on technical and innovation. Several other institutions including Sandip Foundation Sejaul and Birla Institute of Technology Meresa, YMCA Technical University, Faridabad, Annamalai University, Chennai and many other institutions participated in this paper presentation and presented new and original ideas through their papers.

The ambassador of various countries also joined the program. The victorious contestants of exhibition received their winning cheques by Palestinian and Slovenian ambassador Mr. Faik H.H. Hamza and Boris Jolosvik.

In the program, the mesmerizing presentation of a dance drama was given by Kathak dancer Anu Sinha’s group, and it was based on the famous work of Jai Shankar Prasad Kamayani. There was also a session that all the suggestions should be given to Government. At the end of the session Managing editor Dr. Sarika Agarwal and group editor of the magazine Anuj Agarwal expressed gratitude to all the guests and expressed commitment on continuing such dialogue.

Higher Education: Towards big Changes amid challenges

‘Dialogue India Survey’ for the year 2016-17 shows that the education sector of the country is passing through rapid transformation. Extensive changes have been introduced not only in higher education, but also at the intermediate and primary level. The institutions, which grabbed big headlines in the media till a few years back have now vanished from the scene, while those institutions which silently and honestly continued to work focussing on quality are now shining on top. Fact is that, barring a few top players among the private institutions, the position of all the institutions has substantially changed. For the first time the impact of government control over the institutions, colleges and schools is visible. Mushrooming of institutions, uncontrolled admission of students there like cattle and their promotion in next standards after certain ‘nautankis’ and formalities has been nothing but an organised loot. Observation of this pathetic situation and widespread cheating on the part of the institutions highly painful for our survey teams. Like the high powered various committees, expert groups or the studies conducted in the past, our findings about the education system too are disappointing. Our findings support the studies that the degree holders being produced in the country every year by majority of the institutions are armed with the fake certificates and about 80 to 90 per cent of those who have genuine degrees too are unemployable. If this is the situation, we have indeed jumped into a dark well. The country is crawling on the strength of 10 per cent qualified persons or the traditional knowledge of the rest 90 per cent ‘qualified’ but unemployable people. A good number of students who are shown studying in the government schools in most of the small towns, cities or villages by government agencies actually study in unrecognised or recognised private schools after paying hefty fees. But the English medium education received at these so-called public schools does not help them much after they completes 12th standard and appear for any competitive exam for job or higher studies. They have to depend upon the tuition or coaching syndicates where they are taught the techniques to qualify the exam by adopting shortcuts. Hence, some of them become part of any reputed government institution or some land in any higher education institution. Despite that, the story that the above facts state force us to think deeper. During the survey, we experienced an earthquake type situation in the field of private education. Since the courts and regulatory bodies have started acting tough during, for the last two-three years the admissions in hundreds of higher educational institutions have drastically decreased or some institutions have reached the verge of closer. Mandatory use of Aadhar Card, biometric attendance of staff and students, pan card, tough admission rules based on standards, single entrance, curb on charging capitation fees, online monitoring and extensive use of IT etc have all changed the rules of the game. Now nobody is seen advising to open educational institution to make money. The continuous closer of some of the institutions indicate to the same situation. In fact, about two third of the engineering, management, medical or dental institutions are in very poor condition. Many have been closed down or are at the verge of closer. Not only this, many so-called reputed private universities also are at the verge of closer. During the last a few years, the engineering, management, medical or dental collages that have shown good results are fast converting into deemed universities. Many big industrial and business groups have also opened their own universities. Comparatively, it is a welcome trend, because earlier the institutions were run either by some builders, liquor mafias, corrupt politicians or bureaucrats. They used the education sector only to make money by adopting unfair means. Fortunately, that disappointing era seems to be over and those players who have been serious remain in the race. But now some new challenges are knocking the door. It needs no elaboration that our entire education model has been copied from the West. It has neither originality nor the indigenous sprit. It also does not develop the feeling of nationality. The youth who get education through the country’s state funded system easily hand over their knowledge, skills or talent to the multi-national companies. And after doing that they feel proud! It needs immediate action, because such youth are swiftly adopting the alien culture also and have inferiority complex towards their own country, language and culture. Another fact is that majority of the industries or business houses are fast adopting IT and automation. Almost all the successful institutions are today changing their syllabus, labs or faculty members accordingly. But in this process, the use of human resources is gradually decreasing, which is adversely affecting the employment generation. The work which used to be done by 10, 20 or 30 engineers till some time back is now done by 1 or 2 engineers only. This indicates to the grave situation of unemployment, which will be before us in coming days. Additionally, there is a campaign against our IT professionals across the world. In this situation, the big challenge before the policymakers is how to transform the education system so that it generates more avenues of employment. Apart from research, we will have to speedily focus on innovations and entrepreneurship. Otherwise, all the efforts of rankings, conducting studies or surveys will prove to be unfruitful.